Proverbs 25:10 - Exposition

Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame; i . e . lest any one, not the offended neighbour only, who hears how treacherous you have been, makes your proceeding known and cries shame upon you. And thine infamy turn not away. The stigma attached to you be never obliterated. Thus Siracides: "Whoso discovereth secrets loseth his credit; and shall never find friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him: but if thou bewrayest his secrets, follow no more after him. For as a man hath destroyed his enemy; so hast thou lost the love of thy neighbour" (Ecclesiasticus 27:16, etc.; comp. also 22:22). The motive presented in our text is not the highest, being grounded on the fear of shame and disgrace in men's eyes; but it is a very potent incentive to right action, and the moralist has good reason for employing it. That it does not reach to the height of Christian morality is obvious. The gnome is thus given in the Greek: "When thy friend shall reproach thee, retreat backward, despise him not, lest thy friend reproach thee still; and so thy quarrel and enmity shall not pass away, but shall be to thee like death." Then the LXX . adds a paragraph, reproduced partly by St. Jerome, "Kindness and friendship set a man free ( ἐλευθεροῖ ) ; preserve thou these, that thou become not liable to reproach ( ἐπονείδισοτς , exprobabilis ) ; but guard thy ways in a conciliating spirit ( εὐσυναλλάκτως )."